explain away

explain away (third-person singular simple present explains away, present participle explaining away, simple past and past participle explained away)

1. (transitive) To dismiss or minimize (a problem, etc.) by explanation.

   He couldn't just explain away all of his problems.

   • 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter 44, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:

     “I have heard it all. And how you will explain away any part of your guilt in that dreadful business, I confess is beyond my comprehension.”

   • 2023 October 18, Murtada Elfadl, “Killers Of The Flower Moon review: Martin Scorsese's uniquely American tragedy”, in AV Club‎^[1]:

     De Niro veers dangerously close to caricature—making chirpy noises, always tilting his head, adding dashes of comedy—yet he ends up personifying evil while never sanding off the edges of this horrible man or trying to explain away his misdeeds with a humanist approach.

   • 2026 April 24, Michelle Goldberg, “The Conspiracy Theory Behind Tucker Carlson’s Apology”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     I’m all for embracing converts to the anti-Trump cause. But if you listen to the dialogue between Tucker and his brother, it’s clear that rather than honestly reckoning with their role in America’s derangement, they’re developing a new conspiracy theory to explain it away.

• explain
• explanation
• explanatory

• nothing-buttery